Violin

Violin - Pietro Guarneri of Venice Model

Violin - Stradivari Model

Violin - Guarneri del Gesu Model

Viola

Violins available in 4/4, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4.
Violas available in 14", 15", 15.5", 16", 16.5".
Please inquire about outfits (instrument, bow, case, rosin).
All prices INCLUDE shipping.

Strauss Violin: $700.00 ($600.00 for fractional sizes)
Strauss Viola: $900.00 for all sizes

Patterns available:
Stradivari: all
Guarneri del Gesu: 4/4 violin
Personal model: 14" viola (after Stradivari); 3/4 & 1/2 violin
Strobel: 15.5" viola

Handmade by young Bulgarian makers from the Sofia and Kazanlak regions. The wood is medium-flamed Balkan maple, with aged spruce tops that are a minimum of five years old. The instruments are varnished with brush by hand in a specific old style (antiqued). The varnish consists of only natural resins and balsams. These instruments feature fine ebony fittings, Aubert bridges, and Corelli Crystal or Thomastik Dominant strings. Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu patterns. (Made in Bulgaria).

WIENIAWSKI Models < STRAUSS Models > SARASATE Models

Sometimes called the Waltz King, the Austrian violinist/composer, JOHANN STRAUSS JR. 1825-1899), is the musician perhaps most closely associated with the musical capital of Vienna. He is also known as the composer who perfected the Viennese waltz.

The waltz (from the German word walzen, which means "to revolve") is a graceful and romantic dance for couples in 3/4 time. The first of the three beats (both in music and in dance) has a strong accent; it is followed by two lighter beats (or steps), the second of these is an upbeat "pushing" into the new first beat. Developed in central Europe, the waltz, with its fast whirling of partners held as if in an embrace, shocked conservative society when it was introduced about 1800.

The Strauss name was already popular in Vienna. For years, Strauss's father had led orchestras and composed music that filled the dance halls. The father insisted his sons choose other professions, which is why his oldest son, Johann Strauss, Jr., first decided to become a banker. At six, the younger Strauss wrote his first waltz, and began studying the violin with his mother; shortly thereafter, she arranged for him to secretly take violin lessons from one of the violinists in his father's orchestra. By that time, waltz fever had struck Vienna. Strauss, Jr. could no longer deny its power -- in 1842, he left the banking and began giving concerts. In his first concert, the audience demanded 19 encores!

Johann Strauss was the only serious rival to his father’s reign as Vienna’s waltz king, and when his father died in 1849, Strauss, Jr. took over his father’s orchestra, combining it with his own and touring Europe. In 1872, he and his orchestra made a tour of the United States performing at the International Peace Jubilee in Boston -- 20,000 singers and thousands of instrumentalists were used. There were so many performers Strauss had to use a cannon to signal the beginning of his Blue Danube Waltz!

Strauss invited his younger brothers Josef and Eduard, both violinists, to conduct the Strauss orchestras he established throughout and beyond Vienna. The Strauss family had a virtual monopoly on the ballrooms of Vienna. Later in his career Strauss began composing music for the stage. Operettas had been the rage in France and were becoming a favourite of audiences across Europe. Strauss wrote 17 operettas, the most famous of which were Die Fledermaus (The Bat) and Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron). His most famous waltzes include:

On the Beautiful Blue Danube (1867)
Tales from the Vienna Woods (1868)
Perpetual Motion (1869)
Roses from the South (1880)
Emperor Waltz (1888)

A golden statue of Johann Strauss Jr. was sculpted by Edmund Hellmer and unveiled in a park in Vienna in 1921 in tribute to the great composer. 1999 marked the 100th anniversary of the passing of the Waltz King. Austria celebrated with concerts honouring the achievements of its most famous son.